Satellite News

The payload assembly process is now complete for Arianespace’s medium-lift Soyuz flight on 24 May from French Guiana, which is to orbit the 13th and 14th Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites at the service of Europe’s Galileo navigation system.

The first rocket launch from Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome had to be postponed for one day on 27 April due to a faulty cable, which proved to have a design flaw, a panel of inquiry of the space corporation Roskosmos has found.

China plans to launch 30 Beidou navigation satellites during the 13th five-year plan period (2016-2020), capping its three-step strategy to build a global navigation system by 2020.

On 18 May 2016, the 111th customer CubeSat was deployed from the company’s NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) via the JAXA Kibo airlock on the International Space Station (ISS).

Vector Space Systems, a Micro Satellite space platform enterprise comprised of new-space industry veterans from SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, McDonnell Douglas and Sea Launch, announced the successful test of its second stage engine, a major milestone in advance of the company’s first sub-orbital test flight as Vector Space Systems this summer.

Proton manufacturer Khrunichev announced that the launch of Intelsat DLA-2 aka Intelsat 31 had to be postponed owing to technical reasons discovered during pre-launch checks. Lift-off from Baikonur was previously scheduled for 28 May. No new launch date was announced.

The engine that will power the upper stage of Europe’s next-generation launcher completed its first test last week, demonstrating that Ariane 6 is forging ahead for a 2020 debut.

The Chang Zheng-7, one of China’s next-generation rockets, has arrived at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province. The rocket will transport cargo for China’s planned space station and is expected to become a main carrier for space launches.